Bomb that maimed Afghan spymaster hidden ‘inside’ attacker

Afghan policemen stand guard near the site of a suicide attack that wounded Asadullah Khalid, the head of Afghan Intelligence, last December

MOHAMMAD ISMAIL

Jeremy Kelly

Monday June 10 2013, 1.01am, The Times

Investigators reviewing a suicide bomb attack that maimed Afghanistan’s spymaster have concluded that the perpetrator secreted the explosive device inside his body.

The tactic, believed to have been used only once before, will heighten fears that a similar device, undetectable by most airport security systems, could be used on board a commercial aircraft to bring it down.

In December, Asadullah Khalid, an Afghan powerbroker, was told that he had a Taleban emissary wishing to meet him but with a message that he would pass on only in person. Mr Khalid, who two months earlier had taken over as head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), would have been well aware of the risks of such a face-to-face meeting.